One of the less appealing aspects of the twice-yearly Windows 10 feature updates is that they're slow to install and, for most of the installation process, your PC is out of commission, doing nothing more than displaying a progress indicator.

Thanks to a new upgrade process, the next update—expected to be released in April—should result in substantially less downtime. The install process is split into two portions: the "online" portion, during which your PC is still usable, and the "offline" portion after the reboot, during which your PC is a spinning percentage counter.

Microsoft estimates that the Creators Update, released almost a year ago, would take about 82 minutes on average during the offline phase. Improvements made in the Fall Creators Update cut that to about 51 minutes, and the next update (which still hasn't actually been blessed with an official name) will cut this further still, to just 30 minutes.

While Samsung's newest flagship, the Galaxy S9, is just hitting the market, last year's flagship, the Galaxy S8, is getting some love, too. Samsung and its US carrier partners are finally upgrading the Galaxy S8 to Android 8.0 Oreo, a version of the OS that came out six months ago.

Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint are all pushing out the update now, with no word yet on updates for the AT&T or unlocked US version.

Most of Google's engineering efforts on Android 8.0 came in the form of Project Treble, a massive overhaul of the underlying Android bits to modularize the OS away from the hardware, which should lead to easier updates. Due to the complexity of this change, the update is mostly meant for new devices that were built with Oreo in mind, and it's not coming to most upgrading phones. The rest of the changes are nice-to-have things like a revamped notification hierarchy and a lockdown on background processing.

At GDC, Microsoft announced a new feature for DirectX 12: DirectX Raytracing (DXR). The new API offers hardware-accelerated raytracing to DirectX applications, ushering in a new era of games with more realistic lighting, shadows, and materials. One day, this technology could enable the kinds of photorealistic imagery that we've become accustomed to in Hollywood blockbusters.

Whatever GPU you have, whether it be Nvidia's monstrous $3,000 Titan V or the little integrated thing in your $35 Raspberry Pi, the basic principles are the same; indeed, while many aspects of GPUs have changed since 3D accelerators first emerged in the 1990s, they've all been based on a common principle: rasterization.

Here’s how things are done today

A 3D scene is made up of several elements: there are the 3D models, built from triangles with textures applied to each triangle; there are lights, illuminating the objects; and there's a viewport or camera, looking at the scene from a particular position. Essentially, in rasterization, the camera represents a raster pixel grid (hence, rasterization). For each triangle in the scene, the rasterization engine determines if the triangle overlaps each pixel. If it does, that triangle's color is applied to the pixel. The rasterization engine works from the furthermost triangles and moves closer to the camera, so if one triangle obscures another, the pixel will be colored first by the back triangle, then by the one in front of it.

Apple is reportedly taking a big step toward making its own displays, and it isn't using the technology you may be most familiar with. According to a Bloomberg report, a secret facility in California close to Apple Park houses engineers developing microLED displays for Apple mobile devices. While Apple has been making its own chips for its mobile devices for a few years, this would be the first time the company has attempted to build its own displays.

MicroLED technology is still in its infancy, particularly in its application in consumer electronics. We last saw microLEDs show up in Samsung's gigantic, 146-inch TV dubbed "The Wall," which it debuted at CES in January. Making microLED displays is no easy task since the panels are made up of individual pixels that need to be individually calibrated. Each pixel is self-emitting as well, meaning microLED displays do not require individual backlights. But microLEDs produce displays that are incredibly bright, with deep blacks and high contrast ratios; they are also slimmer and don't require as much power as their LCD counterparts.

Due to the complexity of microLED display development and application, Apple is reportedly still in the experimental phases when it comes to these panels. The company reportedly has about 300 engineers working on the initiative, codenamed "T159n," which is being overseen by Lynn Youngs, who helped develop touchscreen display technology for the original iPhone and iPad. Apple also gleaned some intellectual property about microLED development when it acquired the screen-tech startup LuxVue back in 2014.

Yesterday, users in Iran lost access to Apple's App Store. When users attempted to connect or download apps, they received a message saying that the App Store was "unavailable in the country or region" in which they resided. The cessation of services began around noon GMT yesterday, and services resumed around 5:00am GMT this morning, according to social media posts and sources who spoke with Bleeping Computer. A virtual private network (VPN) could still reach the App Store normally.

Media coverage and social media posts were quick to speculate that the store's downtime was an Apple-imposed ban driven by US economic sanctions against Iran, as Apple is based in the US. However, we are not yet aware of evidence to support this. An accidental outage is also possible, as is a block imposed by Iran's government—Iran has previously blocked the Google Play store, though that block was later lifted. Apple has not responded to our requests for clarification.

Because of US sanctions, Apple has no formal presence or operation in Iran, and its App Store is not officially supported there. The company does not sell phones there, nor does it work with any vendors that do. It nevertheless had an 11-percent market share in the country as of last year, as Iranians have purchased millions of iPhones smuggled in from other countries. Iranian app developers have published apps to the App Store for use by Iranian iPhone owners.

A handwritten job application from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has sold for more than $174,000, according to auction house RR Auction. The company told Reuters that the winning bidder is an Internet entrepreneur from England who doesn't want to be publicly identified.

The single-page document, dated to 1973, doesn't identify what job Jobs was applying for. But it provides a window into how Jobs—who would have been 17 or 18 at the time—saw himself.

Jobs identifies himself as an English literature major at Reed College. He officially dropped out of Reed after a single semester in the fall of 1972, but he continued staying with friends on campus and auditing classes in 1973.

Samsung's perfectly adequate flagship, the Galaxy S9, is out in stores today. There are two versions: the Galaxy S9, with a single rear camera and a smaller screen for $719.99, and the Galaxy S9+, which adds a second rear camera and a bigger screen for $839.99.

Samsung is showing off its biggest strength with the S9 launch, working at a scale that many other Android device makers can't touch. The S9 is rolling out simultaneously to 70 countries today, with that number growing to 110 by the end of the month. We recently harped on Google for being terrible at this sort of global thing with the Pixel line, which is available in a whopping six to eight countries.

The Galaxy S9 mostly follows the Galaxy S8 formula from last year but adds two more gigabytes of RAM (for a total of 6GB), stereo speakers, always-on "OK Google" support, and a killer new camera setup with a variable aperture. In the US and China, the phones get the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, while in the rest of the world, the phones use Samsung's equally new Exynos 9810 Octa.

On the heels of opening up registration for its annual WWDC event, Apple will hold an education-focused event on March 27 that will highlight "creative new ideas for teachers and students," multiple reports indicate.

Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago will host the event at 10am CDT on March 27. Apple's last education event took place all the way back in 2012 in New York City. In typical Apple fashion, the event's invitation doesn't offer any details about the impending announcements.

Apple has hosted hardware events during springtime before, and there are a number of rumored devices that could come out at this event. Gossip says Apple might be about to reveal a new 9.7-inch iPad for a special education price of $259. New iPads have been rumored for later this year as well, but it's unlikely that an education-focused iPad would include the new and expensive FaceID camera. A new iPad with Apple's high-end camera, which enables FaceID, Animoji, and ARKit features, may debut later this year.

Music, not activity, highlighted the debut of Garmin's Forerunner 645 Music at CES year. The $449 fitness watch is the first Garmin wearable to have onboard music storage, a feature slowly becoming standard on smartwatches of all kinds.

Since the Forerunner family appeals to serious runners, onboard storage for music is a logical feature to include. But since the Forerunner family is quite niche, some potential users might have overlooked it. With the inclusion of onboard storage, it sits closer to competing with all-purpose smartwatches than ever before—those who have considered the Apple Watch, the Fitbit Ionic, and similar devices may now consider Garmin's new device, too. While more expensive than the base models of its competitors, the Forerunner 645 Music is designed for runners for a reason—and some runners might be willing to drop nearly $500 for this device.

Design

Garmin has finally found its design stride after years of making wearables that were comfortable but not the most attractive accessories to wear. The Forerunner 645 Music takes after the Vivoactive 3 with its round case, quick-release 20mm bands, and 1.2-inch, 240 x 240 display surrounded by a stainless steel bezel.

Believe it or not, the high-end Android smartphone market isn't super competitive. LG's mobile unit is regularly the company's worst-performing division, so much so that the company is backing away from a yearly release cycle and delaying its flagship smartphone. HTC's January 2018 was the company's worst month in more than a decade—until even worse numbers were reported in February. Google makes the all-around best Android phone, but it is either uninterested in creating or unable to create a competitive distribution and marketing chain, leaving many people unable to buy the phone.

Logitech announced a new frameless mechanical keyboard for gaming today. It's called the G513, and it's the successor to the G413, which has been a popular choice since its launch last spring. The company also announced new gaming PC speakers with the same Lightsync colored-LED technology you'll find in the company's gaming keyboards and mice.

Logitech brags of a 1ms report rate for the G513, but the main—albeit not unique—appeal of the keyboard is that it comes with two options for mechanical key switches built by Omron—the Romer-G Tactile and the Romer-G Linear. Logitech is notably not using the leading switch manufacturer, Cherry MX.

Shipping in the second half of this year, the next generation of Xeon Scalable Processors (codenamed Cascade Lake) will contain hardware fixes for the Meltdown attack and certain variants of the Spectre attack. So, too, will a range of processors using the same 8th generation Core branding that some processors are already using.

The Spectre attack has two variants, numbered version 1 and version 2. Spectre version 1 attacks will need software fixes, and the nature of these attacks means that they may always need software fixes. Applications that try to build sandboxes—locked-down environments used for running potentially hostile code, such as JavaScript in the browser—will need to be examined and updated to provide robust protection against Spectre version 1.

Google just remembered that its smartwatch operating system, Android Wear, exists. While we're not getting new hardware or software, the OS is being rebranded to "Wear OS by Google." There's a new name, a new logo, and a new website to promote the brand.

When Android Wear first launched, it was an Android-based smartwatch OS that only worked when paired with Android phones, so "Android Wear" made perfect sense. Google later added iPhone compatibility, which made the name "Android Wear" seem a bit misleading. It would be easy for an iPhone user to see the name and assume their non-Android phone was not compatible with it. "Wear OS" is much more neutral, with Google calling it "a wearables operating system for everyone" in its blog post. The situation is a lot like Google's other recent name change, when it switched "Android Pay" to "Google Pay." Android Pay worked on more platforms than just Android (like the Web) so it got a platform-generic name.

This rebranding is sadly the best news Android Wear has gotten in about year. Before this announcement, it would have been easy to suspect that Android Wear was dead, as it has major problems all throughout the ecosystem and hasn't seen much support from Google.

Samsung wants to make it easier to get your broken Galaxy phone fixed. The electronics maker on Wednesday announced that it is partnering with uBreakiFix, an independent repair chain, to bring same-day, in-person repair service for more users of Galaxy handsets in the US.

The partnership goes into effect on Thursday, one day before Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 phone formally starts shipping. Samsung says the program will cover “more than 300” authorized service locations in the US, which are said to reach “the majority of the continental US population, within a 30-mile radius.” uBreakiFix’s website says the company runs just under 380 stores across the country. Samsung and uBreakiFix say they plan to add “nearly 200” more authorized locations by early 2019.

The companies say they will welcome walk-in customers in addition to those who schedule an appointment online for free in-warranty repairs. Samsung says “most repairs” will be completed in two hours or less. Samsung typically puts a one-year manufacturer’s warranty on its Galaxy flagships. The company says out-of-warranty issues like liquid damage and corrosion won’t be eligible for same-day service but that other out-of-warranty damages, like cracked screens, can still be fixed at a uBreakiFix store. It won’t be free in that case, of course, but Samsung says all repairs from an authorized uBreakiFix store will be under warranty for at least 90 days.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a new version of its modular compute platform: the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+.

The B+ has the same form factor and dimensions as the Pi 2 B and Pi 3 B, making it a drop-in replacement but with a better processor and connectivity. Compared to the Pi 3 B, the B+ adds many hundreds of MHz—it runs its quad core 64-bit Cortex-A53 processor at 1.4GHz, up from 1.2GHz—along with dual band 2.4/5GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2, up from 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 4.1.

The Mozilla Foundation released a new version of Firefox this week—release number 59. It treads further down the performance improvement path that November's Quantum release began, but its most interesting feature is a quality-of-life one: Firefox 59 users can prevent some websites from popping up requests to send notifications to your device or from requesting to use your camera unexpectedly.

Specifically, the update notes say:

Added settings in about:preferences to stop websites from asking to send notifications or access your device's camera, microphone, and location, while still allowing trusted websites to use these features

Numerous websites, especially news sites and other publishers, request to send these notifications so the notification center of, say, your Mac will be filled with news stories with enticing headlines for you to click, driving more traffic. It's annoying, and it muddies the waters of the Web browser's user experience. You can add trusted websites as exceptions, but all such requests will be blocked otherwise.

In another attempt to keep up the fight against Amazon, Walmart is expanding its grocery delivery service. The retailer announced today that it will expand the service, currently available in six markets, to more than 100 cities by the end of 2018. While the exact metro areas haven't been disclosed, Walmart claims the expansion will allow its delivery service to serve 40 percent of US households.

Customers can order groceries online through Walmart's website or through the company's dedicated grocery app. Walmart's network of personal shoppers then gather the items in each order and prep them for delivery. Walmart already employs 18,000 personal shoppers and plans to hire more to support the expansion of this program. The company uses crowdsourced delivery services, such as Uber, to deliver orders to customers. Each delivery order must reach Walmart's $30 minimum, and customers pay a $9.95-per-order fee as well.

Walmart will also expand its current grocery pickup service this year to an additional 1,000 stores. Currently available at 1,200 Walmart locations, this service lets customers order groceries online and pick them up from a store without getting out of their cars.

Apple has always been known as a hardware company, and it still is, but services are more important to its strategy and bottom line than ever before. That point was driven home not just by the most recent Apple earnings report—in which CEO Tim Cook identified services as a division ripe for a doubling of revenue by 2020—but also by a talk by Apple SVP Eddy Cue at SXSW this week.

Interviewed by CNN’s Dylan Byers, Cue talked about Apple News, the tensions between open and closed platforms, and the company's TV and video strategy. Many of the statements he made seemed carefully crafted to distinguish Apple from other tech giants that have been the subjects of criticism in recent months.

This was due to the particularly invasive nature of the Meltdown fix: Microsoft found that certain antivirus products manipulated Windows' kernel memory in unsupported ways that would crash systems with the Meltdown fix applied. The registry entry was a way for antivirus software to positively affirm that it was compatible with the Meltdown fix; if that entry was absent, Windows assumed that incompatible antivirus software was installed and hence did not apply the security fix.

This put systems without any antivirus software at all in a strange position: they too lack the registry entries, so they'd be passed over for fixes, even though they don't, in fact, have any incompatible antivirus software.

This year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple's annual software-focused event, will run from June 4 to June 8. Like last year's WWDC, 2018's conference will take place at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.

Members of Apple's Developer Program and its Developer Enterprise Program can apply for conference tickets now through March 22. Tickets will be issued through a random selection process. Attendees will have to pay $1,599 per ticket, the same as a ticket was to last year's WWDC.

This is the second year that Apple will host WWDC at the McEnery Convention Center. In previous years, the company held the conference in San Francisco at the Moscone West Convention Center. The number of people attending WWDC has grown so much over the years that Apple needed to move it to a larger location to accommodate all the attendees.